Over the past decade, telephone companies have been confronted with increasing competition for their core businesses. Revenues from telephone services are either flat or in a declining state. In order to improve profit margins, telephone companies have dramatically reduced staff levels and diversified their businesses to reduce their reliance on telephone service profits. Telephone companies desire to expand revenue opportunities through the offering of new services. The most significant new service with respect to the residential customer is the delivery of video services such as analog multicast, digital multicast, and switched digital capabilities. Telephone companies look to gain a share of the cable television and video cassette rental revenue streams and to grow the total available market through successful marketing and distribution of new on-demand video services. Therefore, it is desirable that video services can be provided by telephone companies along with telephony services that are currently offered.